present invention relates to a motor vehicle, especially passenger motor vehicle with a rear engine and an air guide arrangement located in the vehicle rear area, which is adapted to be displaced from an inoperative position extending flush with the adjoining body into an extended operating position.
According to the German Patent Application No. P 36 15 584.5, Corresponding to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 048,727, filed May 11, 1987, now abandoned and its continuing application Ser. No. 303,989, filed Jan. 30, 1989. transversely extending gap areas located in the rear, as viewed in the driving direction, and laterally outwardly disposed longitudinally extending gap areas between the air guide arrangement and the body are closed off in the extended operating position of the air guide arrangement by cover elements. The cover element for the rear gap area consists in this arrangement of two rigid parts jointedly connected with each other, whereby one part is secured at the air guide arrangement and the other part at an adjusting mechanism for the air guide arrangement.
For purposes of achieving a good negative lift at the rear axle, it is necessary that the detachment edge of the air guide arrangement is arranged as high as possible and relatively far toward the rear. From that follows that a cover element of large area is required for the rear gap area between air guide arrangement and body. The rigid foldable parts of the cover element would require a relatively large space, as viewed in the vehicle longitudinal direction, when the air guide arrangement according to the aforementioned patent application is in the retracted position and under some circumstances would overlap a partial area of the inlet opening for the cooling air sucked-in by the fan which would become effective unfavorably as regards the cooling of the internal combustion engine.
It is the object of the present invention to undertake such measures at an air guide arrangement arranged in the rear area that a functionally correct admission of the internal combustion engine with cooling air is assured combined with a good negative lift at the rear axle. Furthermore, the sucking-in by the fan of exhaust gases or dirt is to be reliably prevented.
The underling problems are solved according to the present invention in that the cover element for the rear gap area includes at least locally fold-like or pleat-like sections which in the inoperative position of the air guide arrangement lie folded-together one above the other whereas, in the operating position, the fold-like or pleat-like sections assume an approximately stretched elongated position with respect to one another.
The advantages principally achieved with the present invention reside in that owing to the arrangement of fold-like sections a large-area cover element is created in the extended operating position whereas in the retracted inoperative position of the guide arrangement, the fold-like sections are disposed one above the other accordion-like-shaped and thus require relatively little structural space as viewed in the vehicle longitudinal direction so that they do not protrude into the inlet opening for the sucked-in cooling air. A simple connection between the fold-like or pleat-like sections and the adjoining areas of the cover element is created by the film-joint hinges. The part having the fold-like sections is made of two different materials in a single extrusion operation so that the manufacturing costs are kept low. The film-joint hinges consist thereby of a soft plastic material, for example, of thermoplastic polyurethane whereas the remaining areas of the cover element are made of a relatively hard plastic material such as polycarbonate, ABS or the like.